The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Pod Save America is one of the world's most successful news and politics podcasts and the team's set to take their show to our shores.
The Hopefully Just Visiting tour will have live shows across Australia and New Zealand, with the one-off Auckland show taking place at Bruce Mason Theatre this week.
Founder and podcast co-host Tommy Vietor says it's hard to encourage people to pay attention to politics, and he's hoping the podcast can help with that.
"We're noticing that after the 2016 election - there are people who have never thought about politics before, never knocked on a door, never made a phone call... the challenge is, around the presidential elections, the electorate just looks totally different."
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In 2023, comedian Tom Sainsbury released his award-winning murder mystery podcast Small Town Scandal.
The podcast is being re-launched as a television show coming to Neon and Sky, with the series following disgraced journalist Toby Buchanan as he investigates the murder of his millionaire uncle.
The show stars Sainsbury himself, as well as Kiwi actress Morgana O'Reilly.
"It's changed from the podcast, there are some characters that are exactly the same and some storylines that are the same - but we've had to expand it, change it, change the ending, all that kind of stuff."
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The Sisterhood Rules by Kathy Lette, who must be one of the funniest women in the world. It’s about twin sisters who have been estranged for five years, ever since Verity stole Isabel’s husband - but they come together to take their mother in hand when they discover that she’s taken up with a much younger man and is having a fabulous time, running through the money which might otherwise be their inheritance. It’s full of jokes, puns and Kathy’s trademark wit but she’s making a serious point - that the bonds between women are what keep us all sane, and that we need to have one another’s backs.
Seed by Elizabeth Easther, who is a New Zealand journalist, book reviewer, playwright and author. This is also about the bonds between women - in this case between four women, each of whom is struggling with conception or pregnancy and the various modern ways by which those things might happen - fertility treatments, dating apps, autonomy over decisions affecting their own bodies and the impacts of these things with the people in their lives. It will speak very strongly to readers of a certain age - specifically, women who find themselves in the midst of those years, and it feels very true, and very real.
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Thai Airways recently confirmed the return of its non-stop flight route from Auckland to Bangkok - set to launch in the second half of 2026.
The Covid-19 pandemic saw a halt to flights, which included the direct link between the two cities, shutting down in March 2020.
BloggerAtLarge.com writer Megan Singleton explained further - and revealed her itinerary for a perfect four days in Thailand.
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Well, congratulations to all the parents out there of school-age children - most returned to school last week, only then to be home again for the long weekend.
Anyway, as of tomorrow, there’s a sense the year begins proper now and we can all get on with 2026.
I am no longer a parent of school children, and to be honest I find that a relief. Getting your child educated isn’t always straight forward.
But if I was, I would be pleased with Education Minister Erica Stanford’s announcement this week about changes to reporting a child’s progress in primary and intermediate schools.
As a parent who had to suffer through the pointless student led conference era whereby your child would present you with a curated collection of their recent work - this is welcome news.
Not only did the student led system not provide a parent with any practical information as to how their child was progressing, or what they could do to help, but it replaced valuable one-on-one time a parent could’ve had with a teacher getting those details with something a parent could pop in and do at the beginning or end of the day on their own anyway.
The one thing that was drilled into me as a parent of a new entrant was that we’re all in this together. Your child’s learning success doesn’t just come down to a competent teacher, preferably in a single classroom with adequate teacher aid support - it requires parents to participate in and take responsibility for their child’s education.
But if you don’t have a clear understanding of where your child is at, whether they’re thriving or quietly struggling, and probably more importantly, knowing how you can help them along, then we’re not really all in it together. We’re all just floundering.
These early years are critical for establishing foundational literacy and numeracy skills - if you struggle during these years you’re more likely to continue to struggle.
The use of 5 clear progress markers to describe your child’s learning progress has taken a bit of flak for being, shall we say, a little too sophisticated, but it comes with an explanation of why a progress marker was chosen, so I’m sure parents will get their heads around it.
More importantly, it comes with information for how parents can support the next learning steps, and will be followed up with twice-yearly progress check-ins for students in Years 3-8 which will allow parents to see progress over the year.
None of this is intended to add pressure or judgement on children, or undermine the student voice. But if it provides the better clarity and more detailed reporting on academic achievement that Stanford promises it does, then it’s another step in the right direction to provide students with the support they need to flourish.
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